Dialogue centres in places like Tusheti in northeastern Georgia help build up a network to link Members with local business people.
consultation mechanisms or support systems to enable Parliaments, let alone individual Members, to fulfil their role. From our experience of the past 33 years it is apparent that the Dialogue Centre model first formulated for Westminster can be really useful both for established Parliaments and those in transition. The range of ways in which this is achieved is illustrated by the work of the Business and Economic Centre (www.bec.ge) of the Georgian Parliament.
In established democracies, Dialogue Centres are funded from Parliaments and often through help in kind – Parliament providing a meeting room and office for ease of access. In addition there are strictly regulated and transparent
contributions from businesses. Countries in transition usually require at least start-up donor funding as invariably Parliaments do not have adequate budgets. Dialogue Centres are cost
effective as they do not pay for contributors to programmes. The experience of practitioners learning from one another should be mutually and appropriately beneficial. This also means there are built-in quality controls. Neither Parliamentarians nor businesses people will give time if they feel there is no benefit.
On being invited to a country we carry out an assessment of the needs, particularly of the Parliament, and meet with representatives of all political factions or parties, the business
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community and the Speaker to see if a Dialogue Centre could in fact help answer these needs and how it would need to be shaped. If we are invited to establish a Dialogue Centre it operates like a franchise. The service is delivered by nationals chosen by EPDI and programmes developed according to the direction of a national advisory board. The methodology, expertise, development and guarantee of integrity of the process are supplied by EPDI. The Board of the EPDI firmly believes that Dialogue Centres could be of real of use in a number of Commonwealth countries, both established and in transition, and has made the strategic decision to focus its immediate development
on the countries of the Commonwealth.
Georgia: Effective parliamentary practice helps the rural economy All Dialogue Centres in countries in transition have as a measure of their success the impact of their work on the rural economy. Georgia is a good example. The Chairman of the
Agriculture Committee asked for assistance in raising the profile of the rural economy on the political agenda, the government being focused on encouraging inward investment. The Committee had never been out of Parliament let alone to Tusheti, in the
northeastern Greater Caucasus Mountains of Georgia bordering